In 2004, I was diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis. Not a particularly pleasant chronic illness and one that really stretched me emotionally and mentally. I will not bore you with the graphic details of 2 years of hell but rather take you to a conversation I had with my specialist in August of 2006:
“Justin I am going to bring you in to hospital for a week and pump you with a series of drugs. For some people this works. But should it not work, then we will remove your bowel, give you a bag for 3 months before you undergo further surgery and we make a pouch for you.”
My response...“Holy Shit!”
I knew I was sick but it was this conversation that scared me. I had very little time to contemplate this as he was booking me to enter hospital in just 3 days! My life was going on hold for a week and then quite probably another 12 weeks!
As I left his surgery, his last words run through my head every day – including today:
“You know Justin there is a percentage of people that I tell I am going to remove their bowel and they tell me no thanks! They say they will focus on the positives and everyone that tells me positive thinking will ‘save’ them . . . saves them!”
I walked away that day with the most positive thoughts possible to save my bowel and my lifestyle! And today, while still taking medication I am feeling healthy and always positive.
But in the 2 years leading up to that conversation I went through the ups and downs of illness. Some days, I simply couldn’t get off the couch. For a week I may not eat anything and just drink red Powerade. I would go weeks without working out. I was pumping steroids into my body, which blew me up like a beach ball and sent me on massive mood swings.
At the time, I was not depressed - I have too many happy, positive people around me - but I sure could see how mentally debilitating a body illness could be. I was not going to fall into that category and be another medical statistic.
When possible through my acute illness I always tried to exercise or do some activity. Sometimes it was near impossible but I battled through and I now know that is what got me through mentally. The activitiy reduced the development of depression and stopped me from feeling sorry for myself.
Early in 2008, I saw on breakfast TV, Garry McDonald interviewed about depression. And the final question the host asked was how do you reduce depression. The answer was physical exercise.
And that sparked my interest. My personal mission is to get more people physically active, in order to reduce health care burden on our country and I think I had found an organisation that believed in the importance of exercise to help prevent depression and mental illness.
Beyond Blue’s mission is to provide a national focus and community leadership to increase the capacity of the broader Australian community to prevent depression and respond effectively.
They aim to build a society that understands and responds to the personal and social impact of depression, works actively to prevent it, and improves the quality of life for everyone affected.
Through our association with Beyond Blue we will learn how we can help them above and beyond raising money. But we will have a regular article in the Active Report on depression and what is happening at Beyond Blue.
On all our invoices there will be an optional donation of $20 that will be given direct to Beyond Blue. You do not have to pay it but it is an option.
I hope that over my time working with Beyond Blue, I can influence people with positive thoughts and actions to change their lives as my positive thoughts and actions changed my life!
Active Management Supports Beyond Blue